The importance of international domestic duty for Team India.

Team India has had a dismal tour of Australia this year (2011-2012). It’s not the fact that India are losing that has disappointed the Indian fans, but also the performance of three legends of the game that has disappointed some cricket fans (Indian as well as Australian).

A lot was expected from this series, the sky rocketing television ratings and packed stadiums in Australia reflect the tension, the excitement and the expectation from this series.

For the first time India were considered the clear favorites for the test series before it started. Australia were under a new captain and coach, and had only recently found a stable spinner in Nathan Lyon. Their main bowlers Mitchell Johnson and Ryan Harris were out with injury (Mitchell Johnson is out for the summer) and their batsmen, especially Ponting and Hussey hadn’t found form for over a year. On the other side there was Team India, which had Sehwag hitting a double century in a one day match before boarding the flight, and the big guns of VVS, Dravid and Sachin were already in Australia getting prepared, getting used to the conditions. Team India or BCCI had finally found the right formula and balance between a T20, ODI and Test team, giving ample of rest especially to the Test greats and opportunities to the young.

A whitewash in England was considered bad luck, as this had been overshadowed by the wins back at home again. Maybe here is where the mistake was made. Maybe losing a test match overseas was just considered too easy to forget, as Team India had an amazing year otherwise (World Cup 2011). The players and the captain thought it was too much cricket being played before the England test that had made them tired and lead to the defeat. This was obviously considered the main and probably the only cause of the defeat as that’s the only thing that went into preparation of the Australian Test series – rest. Almost half the team currently playing the test series in Australia didn’t play West Indies at home, they were on rest. This seemed to be considered the problem even till the second test match, when during the presentation ceremony MS Dhoni was happy that the team was getting a break to do something else rather than cricket before Perth. Did they forget they are professionals, paid millions to play? Not rest?

Lets go back to the 2010 Ashes series in Australia. Kevin Pietersen had recently finished a disappointing series at home, England had only started rebuilding under a new coach (Andy Flower) and captain (Andrew Strauss). So guess what they did before boarding the flight to Australia? Team England held a training camp which went on for weeks before the test series and KP went the extra mile literally flying to South Africa to get used to the Southern Hemispheric conditions and the popular Kookabura ball, and the rest of the summer is history. England dominated Australia in the test series, just like Australia is dominating Team India right now. Preparation of the right kind is important.

Which brings us back to the main reason this article was written. Team India isn’t playing too much cricket, lets just get this out of our head. VVS and Dravid are playing 3-4 test series a year, much less than they used to. Most players are on a resting rotation. The IPL can’t be blamed, it needs to be applauded for helping team India players get more used to their home conditions and how to play against the best overseas players at home and this was reflected in the World Cup win of 2011.

Team India isn’t playing enough cricket away.

The current team touring Australia has only one player to have most recently played cricket outside India away from an Indian Team. His name is Zaheer Khan, county player, and hence the best bowler of the current Indian line up. A man used to overseas conditions, crowd and pitches. A man capable of swinging the bowl, not as much as the Australians have exploited it this summer down under, but at least able to create and build pressure. But the bowlers are not to be blamed. They have done relatviely well, with the exception being Ashwin who is made for the Indian tracks. Why an experienced player like Bhajji after his CLT20 performance was ignored is beyond belief.

The batting has failed. The team on paper is the best that could have ever been to beat Australia in Australia. The likes of Sehwag, VVS , Dravid and Gambhir have failed. Why? Because they don’t know why or how the ball is swinging. Watching them on TV has made one feel like it is a college level amateur team playing against the big professional boys. The super heavy weights of the game have been resting or performing at home and are doing NOTHING during their “rest” to prepare for an overseas win.

A test win at home is easy. A test win overseas tells stories about your capability. If the super weights and so called living legends need to survive this game they need to go back to the basics. Just like Ranji and IPL are important for home preparations, the counties, the Big Bash League are important for overseas preparation — not more, not less, equally important. And if the excuse is that one has earned it or has experience, lets be practical here. This is the game of cricket. You need to practice and practice all the time, just sitting there and doing nothing doesn’t make a knife sharpen itself.

In the next few years, young guns will make the transition into the test side, but they need to learn from their seniors, not how to perform, but to learn from their mistakes, reflect from their mistakes, improve on their mistakes and never make them again.

The journey to test greatness for Team India is going to be a long one, unfortunately it still looks a bit bleak.